A Guide to Jumping on the Blue Jays' Bandwagon

The die-hard fans, who spent the better part of the last four months pulling their hair out over a club that seemed destined to waste a league-best offence thanks to bad luck, a bad bullpen, and inconsistent starting pitching, have been truly gobsmacked by their team's rapid transformation, thanks to a frenzy of activity at the trade deadline, into the most dangerous team in the sport. And now they're being joined—be it down at a packed Rogers Centre, or among those powering the club's skyrocketing TV ratings—by a different, more casual kind of fan.

The Toronto Blue Jays are suddenly the hottest ticket and the biggest party in Toronto—maybe in all of Canada, and maybe all of baseball, too. And that's great! The more the merrier, and the more revenue the club can generate, the better its chances are of keeping payroll high and this whole thing going into next year and beyond.

So climb aboard the bandwagon, new friends! Here's what you need to know to get up to speed on what's been happening at the Rogers Centre while you were out enjoying your summer.

The Jays' marketing slogan this season was "Come Together," which has generally been derided and scoffed at for being too vague, or too easily joked about as sexual innuendo. But it has actually turned out to be rather prescient. The team was a mess all season. Until the week of the trade deadline, this was a good club with a mediocre record, inconsistent starting pitching, and a bullpen that was one part unlucky, two parts kinda terrible. Everything that had been good about the club came entirely by way of its league-best offence. Since then? Everything has come together just about as perfectly as it could have been imagined. Perhaps you've noticed.

It was clear by late July (if not much earlier) that the Jays needed help preventing runs from scoring, and while most expected that to come in the form of pitching, their first big move was the surprise addition of shortstop Troy Tulowitzki. Tulo has always had trouble staying on the field (he missed much of last season with hip surgery, for example) but when he's healthy he's the best all-around shortstop in the game—very good with the glove and a monster with the bat. In early 2014 it was often discussed whether he or Mike Trout was the best player in baseball. Some now are having that same conversation about Trout and Tulowitzki's new teammate, third baseman Josh Donaldson. And while the answer in both instances is Trout, the Blue Jays suddenly have themselves a ridiculous left side of the infield.

The Jays weren't finished trying to keep other teams off the board, though. The day before the deadline they added a former Cy Young winner and legitimate ace, David Price, in a stunning deal with the Detroit Tigers. Price is one of the best pitchers in baseball—his bona fides don't really need to be dissected—but he's also a presence. He brings star power, a great sense of humour that he displays frequently on Twitter, an obvious willingness to quickly fit in with teammates, as well as dread from the opponents who have to face him. He's only a rental, though—he's a free agent after this season, and it's highly unlikely the Jays can keep him, even though he seems to have immediately fallen in love with the city, and vice versa—and he cost the club five years of a very good prospect in walking-human-interest-story Daniel Norris (did you know he lives in a van???), and more. Looks like a great decision by the club so far, though.

Aaron Sanchez, who began the year as a starting pitcher, returned from injury as a reliever—a role he had tremendous success in last season—which helped to settle the bullpen, as he and rookie Roberto Osuna now give the Jays a late-inning combination of power-armed youngsters with terrific stuff. Mix in the trade deadline additions of Mark Lowe (an out-of-nowhere strikeout machine who began the year in Seattle) and the ageless LaTroy Hawkins (who, amazingly, was drafted in the same year as former Blue Jays star Shawn Green, who retired after 2007) and a bullpen that was once a weakness is now a strength. Aaron Loup has barely been seen since the moves were made, and anyone who has been following all year will tell you what a relief that is.

Perhaps the most amazing thing in all this is that the previous core of the team is still here, save for the one player it seemed likely the Jays were going to be stuck with: Jose Reyes. It's not that Reyes was a bad player for the Jays, necessarily—though some will tell you otherwise—it's that his skills were eroding. The once-dynamic shortstop, who was a base-stealing, triple-hitting machine with a enough speed and arm to be a plus on defence, had simply lost a step—with his legs, with his bat, and with his glove. Some of the misplays he made this season were downright ugly, and it didn't exactly feel like better times were on the horizon. It cost some outstanding prospects to move him—in particular, last year's top draft pick, right-handed pitcher Jeff Hoffman—and the Jays ended up taking on more salary over the long term, too, but they got Tulo out of it. Nobody should ever complain about this deal.

Jose Bautista, amazingly, given that he's been the face of the Blue Jays' franchise for so long, has lately been a little overlooked thanks to the influx of shiny new stars in the Jays' universe. Bautista isn't having his best year, but he's also suffered through a shoulder problem, exacerbated by a lapse in judgment in a heated April game against the Orioles, when he tried in anger to throw Delmon Young out at first base from right field after the Orioles had been throwing at him all series. (The Orioles and Royals are the teams we hate the most this year, FYI). Bautista's defence, and therefore his standing among the league leaders in Wins Above Replacement, has suffered as a result, but he's still one of the top 20 hitters in the game, despite the pain he's playing through. Show him the love he deserves.

It was announced last week that Marcus Stroman is tentatively scheduled to pitch in a rehab game August 21st, and this week came word that the club aims to stretch him out to be a starter, provided he is healthy enough to return in September. All of this has made Jays fans absolutely giddy, as it was expected coming into the season that the second-year starter would blossom into the club's ace. And it wasn't just fans who were excited—the industry was, too, whipping fans into a frenzy over Stroman, his ridiculous arsenal of pitches, and the improvements he continued to make on the mound during his rookie season. The Jays saw it, too, and by some reports Stroman was slated to be the club's Opening Day starter. That is, before he blew out his knee and it was announced that he would miss the entire season. The blow was made less devastating, however, by Stroman's enthusiasm and determination to get back on the field, and now, amazingly, he's followed through. He's pitching this year.

• Edwin Encarnacion and Russell Martin are the fifth and sixth best players on this team. Mark Buehrle is maybe the eighth or ninth, and only if you don't count relievers. That is absolutely insane.
• The Jays are going with underwhelming characters at first base—Justin Smoak and Chris Colabello—as well as in left field with Ben Revere, but they have such monstrous talent elsewhere that it hardly matters. Especially since Smoak and Revere are very good defenders at their positions, and can hold their own with the bat.
• Impress your friends by reminding them that though his overall numbers don't look terrific, R.A. Dickey has been fantastic since about the start of June. Impress them even more by pointing out that his season took off at that point because he and pitching coach Pete Walker did some work regarding his hips, which allowed Dickey to throw his knuckleball just a little bit harder than he had been—closer to the speeds he was throwing it in his Cy Young season of 2012.
• John Gibbons is fine. Stop looking for ways to blame John Gibbons for things!
• To truly feel the spirit of what's going on with the Blue Jays right now, might I suggest immersing yourself in Blue Jays Twitter. No, not the Jays themselves—though Price and Stroman and Bautista are must-follows—but the terrific, insightful, witty mass of fans (and me, though I'm none of those things) who trade barbs and GIFs and blog posts and all manner of delightful detritus.
• Lastly, and most importantly, when you're at the stadium, please—for me—never, ever, ever start the wave. Ever.